Stories From Around Our House

Book recommendation!

If you are a home school mom, I highly recommend this book. A friend of mine sent it to me, and I am so thankful she did. I laughed and cried. I felt conviction about how I spend my time with my kids, but not because she tells how great she did everything, but because she was honest about what she wishes she did differently. I was inspired to teach and encourage my children to be life-long learners. I was reminded that home schooling doesn’t need to be as difficult as I sometimes make it in my mind. I wanted to share a few of my favorite quotes from her book here to encourage you and maybe inspire you to go buy this book!

page 6 “We have to repent of that idea of control, repent of our little kingdoms over and over again. Maybe the greater part of our sanctification comes as we remember that those around us were not born as appendages to us; they are unique individuals made in the image of God. In return, we are not appendages to our family either. I was born a person. My mother found this just as shocking about me as I did about my first son.”

page 7 “Motherhood is a place of dreamy hopes and crushed fantasies and the hard, hard work of sinners in relationship with one another day by day.”

page 120 in regards to her children leaving home, “It was a bit of a shock for me to watch my family dwindle over the last ten years, because ten short years ago we had all of our children squished into the pew with us. And while my other children are all generally in a pew somewhere, they are not with me…There’s just no way to see something like that coming, and maybe it is wrong of me to even mention it to young mothers.”

page 113 “I read once that a nine year old boy is the most pleasant of all children to be around. I believe that is true. As moms, we have this baby, and then we have this nine-year-old boy, and our relationship with him is sweet to us, but that is not the end of the story…….Ultimately, we have to let our boys be men. Whatever satisfaction we got out of our relationship with our son must be turned toward the one who is better than ten sons. Isn’t that how our hearts work? Our longings are triggers which find their fulfillment in Christ. That fulfillment is always available to you as a mother ever in the midst of letting go of relationships we treasure.”

SIGH. Mack is nine years old. He is the sweetest thing, too. After reading this section, I may have gotten up and walked over to his bedroom where he was sleeping and kissed his freckled cheek and whispered a prayer that I would be a mom that could love and not smother. Be a mom that raises him to be a man, a strong and bold and kind man of God.

page 110 “We are living in an increasingly feminized society. Some people view that as an increasingly civilized society, but it has left our boys with deep desires for honor but few outlets for displaying it properly.”

This next quote in particular made my stomach sink. Being a stay at home mom that home schools her three kids can, at times, feel isolating. Social media can be your main connection to the outside world some days! Or maybe you want to pretend like you aren’t a home school mom, so you immerse yourself in what other people are posting about their lives or you read news articles for an hour about the two crazy contestants for President (doesn’t this feel like a game show that will end instead of Presidential election with real nominees?). Whatever the reason, I do NOT want to harm my relationships with my kids when I ignore opportunities for big, juicy conversations just so I can see what so-and-so did on Fall Break or how far Suzy Q ran yesterday. I mean, seriously. It is absurd as it sounds. I do think there are positives to social media—no doubt. But we must be mindful of how it might be affecting our family.

page 88 “Perhaps I did not watch my children as well as I should have during those years. It seemed like I was always with them, but was I paying attention? It turns out I was not, and some of my children suffered deep wounds because of it. It would be convenient for me to skip this fact, except that I feel compelled to warn other mothers not to make the same mistake.”

page 148 “If we read a book knowing we have to tell someone else about it, we will read with attention. Without attention, no child or adult learns anything. Narration, oral and written, trains the mind to pay attention.The attentions the child gives engages his mind so that he is not merely reading, he is processing what he is reading.”

Oh, so much good stuff in this book, Mere Motherhood by Cindy Rollins. This book is one I will need to read again…and again. Go out and get a copy and let me know what you think!